For those Jets fans rooting for draft position above all, today was a good day. Anyone hoping to see improvement from rookie quarterback Brady Cook in his second pro start however, will be less enthusiastic.
Following a relief appearance and a start last week in which Cook showed some signs of life in his first NFL action, the undrafted free agent out of Missouri struggled mightily in his second effort.
Now, in fairness to Cook, we saw the return of dumb Jets penalties as Gang Green committed one infraction after another, repeatedly costing the offense first downs or at least moved them from short yardage situations to much longer distances needed to convert.
The Jets committed 7 penalties for 54 yards with five of them counting for 44 yards on offense. John Simpson was flagged for the 10th and 11th times this season with his first flag wiping out a third-down conversion on a 3rd & 1 Brady Cook sneak. But this doesn’t mean Cook was without blame.
Several times we saw a hesitant Cook hold on to the football for too long and take a sack. There were also several plays in which Cook tried to get away from pressure and ran himself right into a defender. On the day, New Orleans got to the rookie eight times, bringing his total to seventeen sacks in just three games.
Asked after the game if he thought about going to veteran Tyrod Taylor in the second half, head coach Aaron Glenn said that he did not, as the Jets continue trying to evaluate the signal caller ahead of next season.
Things weren’t much better on defense where the Jets surrendered 29 points to a Saints team that had no running game to account for. Rookie quarterback Tyler Shough dropped back to pass fifty times and got off 49 attempts for 308 yards. For the second week in a row, the folks at PFF had linebacker Quincy Williams down for allowing three touchdowns, bringing his total on the year to eight.
There were some bright spots in that Jamien Sherwood played what may have been his best game of the year under new coordinator Chris Harris, while Jowon Briggs, Malachi Moore, Dean Clark, Jordan Clark and Will McDonald flashed at times. In fact, Ross Tucker who was calling the game for CBS, was effusive in his praise for Sherwood early on, and then for McDonald as he dialed it up a few notches in the second half.
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